A local environmental group hopes a ruling that essentially ends the fight over a road at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon might actually be the beginning of serious revisions to Salt Lake County's regulation of construction in the canyons.

The Utah Court of Appeals denied an appeal of a 3rd District Court ruling Thursday from Save Our Canyons regarding the construction of a road to be used to access a private development by development company Wasatch Pacific. The lawsuit had requested that construction on the road be halted and three variances granted by the Salt Lake County Board of Adjustments be voided.

In its lawsuit, Save Our Canyons charged that the Board of Adjustments had violated the Foothills and Canyon Overlay Zone (FCOZ) ordinances by granting the variances and that board members violated the open meeting laws by having ex parte contact with developer Terry Diehl and members of the Salt Lake County Council. The court denied both aspects because "literal enforcement of the zoning ordinance would cause an unreasonable hardship" and that Save Our Canyons had not provided any evidence, besides a newspaper article, of the open meeting violations.

While disappointed in the ruling, Save Our Canyons executive director Lisa Smith is not surprised. Although it could be appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, the group — which has already spent almost $35,000 in privately donated funds on the lawsuit — has indicated the suit likely won't go further. Instead, the group will focus on "positive things" and attempt to parlay the immense public support for its fight into better protections for the foothills, she indicated.

"The big fear is that this will open the flood gates to lots of development in the canyons, because there is a lot of private property up there," Smith said. "But there was so much public outrage that I think it has opened people's eyes."

Smith said she hopes Mayor Peter Corroon will be a strong advocate for tighter rules on canyon development, since he opposed the road during his campaign in 2004. The mayor's office did not return phone calls for comment, however.

The road's construction was actually a big part of the mayor's race last year, especially before the scandals erupted that eventually forced former Mayor Nancy Workman to resign. Much of the focus was on Diehl's connections to county politicians — he served as Councilman Randy Horiuchi's campaign finance director in 2002 and was a big contributor to Workman's campaign — and how much influence that exerted over the board's decision.

The board initially denied the road design in 2002, when it needed 14 variances and included multiple deep cuts into the mountainside to accommodate the road, which climbs up slopes that sometimes exceed grades of 50 percent. The approved road utilized two bridges, although it still climbed steep slopes and had grades as steep as 12 percent.

The road is needed to access the residential development, which has no other points of access because it is bordered on other sides by U.S. Forest Service land, a gravel pit and a private gun range.

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com